UK Offence Report

Power to give a fixed penalty notice

regulation 7(7) of The Environmental Protection (Injurious Articles) (Fixed Penalty Notices and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2025

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

7 A person commits an offence if the person— a fails to give a name, address or date of birth when required to so under paragraph (6), or b gives a false of inaccurate name, address or date of birth in response to a requirement under that paragraph.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
failing to do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 7(7)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Not doing what the provision requires under the Environmental Protection (Injurious Articles) (Fixed Penalty Notices and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2025, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Scotland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (CP(S)A 1995 s.225(2)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
5 February 2025
In force from
31 March 2025
Extent
S

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations make provision for a fixed penalty notice procedure in relation to offences under the Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (“the 2018 Regulations”), the Environmental Protection (Cotton Buds) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 (“the 2019 Regulations”), the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the 2021 Regulations”), and the Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (“the 2024 Regulations”). These Regulations also make amendments to the 2024 Regulations to provide for a later coming into force date, to clarify the circumstances in which an enforcement officer may take vapes or components of vapes into their possession, and to correct a minor typographical error. Part 2 of these Regulations provides for a fixed penalty notice procedure in relation to offences under regulation 3(1) or (2) of the 2018 Regulations. New regulation 7 of the 2018 Regulations inserted by regulation 3 outlines the circumstances in which an enforcement officer may give a fixed penalty notice to a person, the effect of either accepting or refusing the offer to pay the fixed penalty, the time period during which a fixed penalty notice may be given, and during which no other proceedings may be commenced in relation to an offence under regulation 3(1) or (2) of the 2018 Regulations. It additionally provides an enforcement officer with a power to require that a person to be issued with a fixed penalty notice give their name, address and date of birth, and a related offence for refusing to provide that information or giving false information. New regulation 8 of the 2018 Regulations sets out the particulars that must be included in a fixed penalty notice given under new regulation 7, and new regulation 9 provides for the amount of the fixed penalty and the discounted amount that applies when paid within the period identified. Parts 3 and 4 provide for similar amendments to the 2019 Regulations and the 2021 Regulations so as to provide for a fixed penalty notice procedure in respect of offences under regulation 3(1) or (2) of the 2019 Regulations and regulations 3(1), (2) or (3), 4(1) or 5(1) of the 2021 Regulations. Part 5 of these Regulations makes amendments to the 2024 Regulations. Regulation 7 amends the coming into force date of the 2024 Regulations from 1 April 2025 to 1 June 2025. Regulation 9 amends regulation 9(1)(e), (f) and (g) of the 2024 Regulations to clarify that an enforcement officer in exercise of their powers under regulation 9(1)(e), (f) or (g) may take into their possession any vape or component of a vape found in any premises the enforcement officer has the power to enter, which appears to that enforcement officer to be a single-use vape or component of a single-use vape. Regulation 7 additionally amends regulation 9(1)(g) to provide that an enforcement officer may retain single-use vapes in their possession for the purposes of compliance with a direction issued under new regulation 14. Regulation 10 inserts provision into the 2024 Regulations which provides for a fixed penalty notice procedure in relation to offences under regulation 4(1) of the 2024 Regulations in similar terms to the amendments made to the 2018 Regulations, the 2019 Regulations and the 2021 Regulations. New regulation 13 provides for the amount of the fixed penalty, the discounted amount that applies when paid within the period identified, and also for different fixed payment amounts and discounted amounts in circumstances where there has been prior enforcement action within the previous three years. New regulation 14 provides for the Scottish Ministers to give a direction that single-use vapes in respect of which an offence under regulation 4(1) has been committed are to be treated as waste and for the disposal or other treatment of those single-use vapes. A direction under new regulation 14 will apply to any single-use vapes in respect of which an offer of fixed penalty has been accepted, and the fixed penalty has been paid in accordance with new regulation 13.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source